


Rigid expectations

by Transmako



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Earthbending & Earthbenders, Gen, Lavabending & Lavabenders (Avatar), Metalbending & Metalbenders, Platonic Bopal, Platonic Relationships, this is an aro analogy btw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-17 11:54:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28724682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Transmako/pseuds/Transmako
Summary: When Bolin brings up his frustrations with metalbending, Opal gives him some advice.
Relationships: Bolin & Opal (Avatar)
Kudos: 6





	Rigid expectations

It had been a long day for 10-year-old Opal Beifong. This was probably her last chance to prove that she could bend, seeing as most children found their power before puberty, and she had blown it. She already knew that her nonexistent bending wouldn’t be seen as all to powerful being the granddaughter of Toph Beifong- anyone; except maybe the avatar; who would be compared to such would be automatically seen as the lesser, but it was a letdown to know she couldn’t do it at all. Opal tried to fall asleep right away to ignore the disappointment but was kept up by the thought of how her future would be if she had lifted that rock earlier today on the grounds where some of her siblings had already begun mastering their skills. She finally drifted to sleep once the sky got as dark as it could be, letting her failure at bending fade into the background for the next 7 years. 

It had been a few days since the new team avatar had arrived in Zaofu. Opal and the others were getting accustomed to seeing them around the vicinity, as Korra started Opal’s airbending training with some of the more basic techniques and fundamentals. Along with picking up some of the essential airbending forms, Opal began to notice small things about the guests, the most obvious one being the awkward way Bolin was acting around her. 

After confronting him to be honest about it, Opal thought she had caught the same feelings Bolin was expressing in his previous artificial attempts at conversation. 

Her request to stop acting so unnatural around her didn’t seem to apply to the subject of metalbending the next morning when He and Korra was offered lessons in the sub-bending form. After politely declining, Bolin wandered off, not specifying where he was headed. That didn’t stop Opal from easily finding him near her mother’s meteorite collection. 

“Hey Bolin.” Opal said, startling him. 

“Oh, hey Opal. Nice day outside, right?” Bolin responded, deflecting a conversation that hadn’t even started. 

Opal ignored his attempts to avoid the topic she hadn’t brought up yet. “What’s going on? And my are you hiding that meteorite?”

“Oh, this?” Bolin pulled out the space metal he had only halfway hidden from Opal’s view. “I was just admiring the beauty of…”

“You were trying to metalbend, weren’t you?”

Bolin knew Opal wouldn’t let him lie anymore and let his facade fall. 

“Yes, I have… just don’t tell anyone.”

“Why not?” Opal said, glad he was telling the truth, but confused as to why it had to be such a secret. 

“Because I’ve tried it before. I’ve tried and I’ve failed every time. Your grandmother is my biggest hero and I thought, maybe if I really concentrate hard enough, I won’t be such a letdown of an earthbender.”

Opal paused. Something he had said released a wave of neglected emotions that Opal hadn’t felt in years. Issues she had swept aside now resurfacing as someone else expresses they feel the same. Maybe her problem with bending was solved by harmonic convergence, but her old feelings felt just as relevant to her as when she was a nonbender. 

“I know how you feel.” 

Bolin was puzzled why Opal could understand his dilemma. “Aren’t you an airbender though?”

“I wasn’t expected to be one. I was expected to be a Beifong, that meaning a metalbending prodigy, or at very least someone who can lift a few rocks off the ground with earthbending.”  
“But your mom- “

“Isn’t the only person in my life. And not all pressure has to be outright spoken.”

There was a moment of silence between the two of them, a nice break to calm down the building up stress before it overflowed. 

Opal eventually broke the quiet. “You know, there are more ways to be a good earthbender than being a metalbender.”

“Like what?” Bolin said, genuinely interested.

“I’m not that much of an expert, so don’t take my word for it, but some past avatars have been known to bend lava.” 

Bolin smiled at the thought. It was comforting to think you could do things your own way, it was comforting to know the freedom that followed taking a step off the path invisible pressure had laid out for you. 

The heat was closing around them. Outrunning and then avoiding the stream of lava had proven useless in the group’s efforts to escape alive. Jumping wouldn’t be an option, due to the tremendously long fall to the ground they would most likely die from. They were running out of time and ideas, the only one anyone had was as crazy as it sounded. But it was the only one Bolin knew of, now was the perfect time to see if Opal was right about bending lava. Bolin ran forwards, making the other three stare in concern, yelling for him to not run headfirst into death. As Bolin stretched out his hands, something clicked. He knew what to do, without being able to explain how to do it. The lava flow cooled to a stop, assuring everyone of safety, at least for now. Tenzin, Asami, and Mako all gave their reaffirming comments, complimenting on the insane feat of bending no one fully expected. Kai showed up right after the applause had died down, giving them all a ride to safety. 

Opal had been right, even if you ignore the guess as to what skill Bolin would do it with, he had found his way against the expectations that weighed both of them down. He had found that freedom on the offside of the road, and just by doing things a little unconventionally.


End file.
